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Apple killed off iTunes in its latest OS X Catalina beta. The update has wreaked havoc with DJs who relied on iTunes.
Apple replaced the aging iTunes with the Music app. Existing tracks and playlists are transferred to the new GUI, which prioritizes Apple Music. The Music app can load in .mp3s and other audio files, but it’s missing one key feature.
iTunes offered the ability to share its library information in XML format with other applications. The new music app does not offer this feature. Many popular DJ software suites like rekordbox, Serato, and Pioneer DJ rely on that integration to read playlist data.
DJ apps lose the ability to communicate with iTunes once a device receives the Catalina update. Any new playlists will need to be organized in Music and will no longer show up in your DJ software. Many DJ enthusiasts raised the alarm with Apple during Catalina’s beta test phase. However, it looks like sharing XML data is gone for good.
So far, few DJ manufacturers have commented on the removal. A third-party middle-man piece of software called Choones says it can integrate with most popular DJ software for managing your playlists.
XML is a pretty dated data-sharing format, so it’s not surprising that Apple dropped it. While they’ve been mum on whether Catalina will get XML support, they may be working on a new API for Music. Some DJ software are already working hard to adopt the new Music app featured in the OS X Catalina beta.
For now, it’s recommended that iTunes DJ playlist users not update their laptops if you rely on iTunes.
There is no way to downgrade your laptop after it has been updated and no way to install iTunes 12.9 as a standalone file. We’ve reached out to several DJ software manufacturers to ask how they plan to deal with the transition.